Initial Charges Dropped In Hicks Case, New One Filed

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Charges against a man accused of making threats at a local nursing home have been dropped.

Larry Hicks was originally charged with harassment and making terroristic threats.

The defense attorney for 53-year-old Larry Hicks says the only truth about what happened two weeks ago is that his client was carrying a gun.

The Rochester man was armed with a semi-automatic pistol when police arrested him at the Friendship Ridge nursing home in Beaver, where his elderly mother is a resident.

The district Attorney dropped the initial charges and filed a new one.

“The difference between the two cases is all the charges of terroristic threats, harassment, any threatening behavior, was removed and the new charge is solely carrying a firearm without a license,” defense attorney Gerald Benyo said.

Benyo says Hicks never made the alarming threats that were alleged in the first criminal complaint.

“And he looked at a calendar and told the nurse,’16, 17. Seventeenth is a good day for people to die and I’m going to get her today,’” Beaver County Sheriff George David said after Hicks was taken into custody.

So now, both sides forge ahead with a new case, with that lesser charge.

“The Beaver County DA office had the detective bureau interview the people there and we’re going to rely on the information that was provided,” Benyo said.